Man, I wish I really went to high school in the 80s. I've got perfect hair for that. I have a feeling it would have been something like the above picture. Dan's picture is supposed to be from 1974. Try it for yourself here and let's see the results!

My trip to Jack-in-the-Box.

Background #1: In my childhood, we NEVER went to Jack-in-the-Box. I think it's because they had some e-coli or salmonella scare or something so my parents just decided that we would never eat there again. When we got to Houston, Dan convinced me to give it a try and I actually liked it. Their chocolate milkshake is off the charts.

Background #2: In our apartment's mailroom, there's a big bin where people can throw any junk mail they don't want. About a month ago, we got a Jack-in-the-Box ad that had a coupon for a FREE smoothie. No catch. Just a free smoothie. So instead of being satisfied with my one coupon, I dug through that junk bin and got 10 more coupons. ROCK ON! People had just thrown them away without reading them. So we've used a few, but they don't expire until January. It's awesome.

Back to the story: So the week after the hurricane, a lot of stores were closed and we didn't have power so I was craving a nice cool beverage. Around 7 in the evening, Dan offered to watch Sam while I went to JITB and got a shake for me and a free smoothie for him. So I went there and there was a sign on the door that said the dining room is closed for the time being and the drive-thru is only open from 10-6. Bumma. No shake for me.

So the next day, I decided to go on a nice long walk with Sam to JITB to get a free smoothie. It's quite a walk - probably .75 miles and that's pushing Sam and dodging all the debris on the sidewalk from Ike. So I huff and puff and finally get there. There were two ladies who drove up at the same time so instead of me just going straight for the drive-thru with my stroller, I pretended to look at the sign on the building first so they knew that the dining room was closed and that I HAD to go through the drive-thru. So I get in line for the drive-thru with a stroller. I'm already looking so cool. Two cars in front of me, three cars behind me. Breathing in toxic fumes. A woman with a stroller.

So finally it's my turn to talk to the dude through the speaker thing but nothing happened b/c the sensor didn't detect me. I think the others were getting impatient. So the ladies, who had gotten back in their car to also go through the drive-thru, drove up a little bit so that the guy knew someone was there. So then I ran up to the speaker, just feet away from these ladies, and told him I just wanted my free smoothie. He says, "Sorry. The smoothie machine isn't working." Man, I looked like a doofus. To make things worse, I had pulled out the coupon and at the same time, dropped the only money I had - a measley quarter - and couldn't find it. So I didn't get a smoothie and I'm out a quarter.

Then I walked home.

...and we're back!

We survived! We got power back early this morning and were beyond excited. We had heard one person say we might get it back on Friday, but on the power company's website, they were saying it could be after Monday that we got it back. Sam was crying so I got up to get him and I looked over at the clock and it was flashing! I woke Dan up and we were both so happy. Six days without power wasn't too bad. Other people have it a lot worse, but I couldn't wait to take a hot shower. My legs hadn't been that hairy since I was 11!

The hurricane sounded to us like a heavy rainstorm or windstorm. Just a lot of wind and rain. When we woke up, though, trees and powerlines were down all over the place. Gutters and siding had fallen off of a building and a few windows in the complex had blown out. But for the most part, we were fine. Heavenly Father really blessed us these last few days with some gorgeous weather. It's been in the high 70s/low 80s and low humidity so life w/o a/c wasn't very oppresive. Lots of stores are just beginning to open and you had to wait in line at Kroger and only had 10 minutes to shop. The lines were madness.

Here are some pictures and videos that I took:

This first one is of the "bayou" (read: canal) behind our apartment complex the day before Ike.

This is the afternoon of the day Ike hit.

IKE! YIKES!

Hurricane Ike is headed right for us. Luckily, we're about 40 or so miles from the coast so we're hoping it will die down a little bit before it reaches us. Still, we're thinking we may not have power for a week or two. We plan on keeping our phones off unless we're calling someone. If you call, feel free to leave a message and we'll call you back. We'll see how this goes! Welcome to Houston, right?

Tummy Time

Whoever said babies love tummy time was severely mistaken. Not once has Sam gotten through 15 minutes of tummy time without screaming bloody murder.

In other news, Sam's got some crazy long hairs that reach down PAST the bottom of his earlobes. but we can't bring ourselves to cut his hair. That's about it for now! I just hang out with Sam and get lost when I try to go and do things. I've got the drive to Target down, but that's about it!

My Getaway to San Antonio

Hey folks, Sam here. I decided that my parents needed a little time alone together before Dad starts work on Tuesday, so I took a nice little trip down to San Antonio, Texas.

The first day, I drove down and checked in to my swanky hotel. My Grandpa Cheney would have loved it! It had free popcorn and two free alcoholic drinks every day. (He would have loved the popcorn, not the alcohol!) Don't worry. I'm on an all-milk diet. Gotta look good for the ladies, you know. The hotel's breakfast was off the charts, too. But again... milk does this body good.

After checking in, I strolled along the famous Riverwalk. There were lots of overpriced restaurants and lots of tourists, but it was really pretty and fun to see. I got pooped out pretty early so I hit the sack.

The second day, I went to two of San Antonio's five missions - Mission San Jose and Mission Concepcion.

At the first mission, I took a moment to reflect on the impact of the Spanish mission life on the culture of the indigenous people of southern Texas.

Then I lightened things up a bit and stuck my head out of a hole in the wall they used to stick cannons through.



Later I took a siesta and then went back to the Riverwalk to take a tour on one of their boats. As you can tell, the tourguide was a snoozer!

On my last day in San Antonio, I went to the Alamo. I saw a knife that belonged to one of my ancestors who fought at the Alamo, but I wasn't allowed to take a picture.


It was a pretty fun trip and I think my parents enjoyed their time together alone. Until my next trip, adios, amigos!

Our Houston DMV Experience

This basically sums it up.

So, on Friday we decided to go get our Texas driver's licenses at the Texas DMV. Kristen asked me beforehand if I thought it would be as bad as the Virginia DMV. I basically said that all DMVs were bad. We figured that getting there at 11am would be good for missing crowds: not before work, not after work, not during lunch. Boy were we wrong. And boy was I right, at least about Houston's DMV being bad. There were more people in that office than in the Olympic's opening ceremony.

We got there at 11am. Then, we stood in a winding line for about 30 minutes, to get to a desk where a woman checked to make sure we had all the right documents. Then, she gave me a number to wait in another group to actually get my information processed and get my picture taken. Kristen forgot a document, so she was out of the running already. My number was 93. When I got my number, they were on 35.

So, we waited, with Sam in his carseat. Luckily, a couple chairs became available, and we got to sit right in front of the TV showing "All My Children," while probably at least 30 others still were crammed into a 12'x12' standing space. Here, we waited for my number to come up, so that I could stand in another line along the wall underneath the TV. In the meantime, a trooper yelled at folks, including me, to get out of the way because we were blocking their view of the line. (He said, "you've got to move out of the way." I replied, "I'm waiting here with my wife and baby." He said, "no, you've got to move out of this line." I said, "I'm not in this line, I'm waiting." He said, "you are in this line, you're standing there." I said, "don't taze me, bro." Just kidding. But I should have. He was a very pleasant guy. Troopers tend to be, after all.) Apparently, they need to know just how long the line is, so that they can precisely create a critical mass of seething, frustrated, tired tax payers.

After about an hour and forty-five minutes from the time we got there, my number was called, and I got to stand in line again, get my picture taken, and get a temporary license good for 8 weeks, since my real license might take that long to get here. At 1:20pm, after a total of two hours and twenty minutes, I was done. And Kristen gets to go back again. Fortunately, Sam was really good the whole time. It's only a twenty minute drive each way too.

I guess I had it easy. One woman told me that she came with her daughter at 7:30am. They were sent back home 40 minutes away to get another document that they didn't bring. Then, when they returned, they were told that they needed another document that the DMV employee forgot to tell them about, so they went back home for that too. She finished about 5 or 10 minutes before me, so their ordeal lasted over 5.5 hours. Aren't DMVs the greatest?

We're Here!

We have been in Houston for a little over a week. Crazy! Dan made it down w/ the Penske in one piece. Sam and I flew down and met him here. Sam did surprisingly well on the flights. Just a few short outbursts... And I sat next to ladies with children so they were pretty understanding. One lady even gave Sam a NASA sticker. He didn't know what to do with it so I put it on his PJs. During the flight I got to see a lightning storm below us. That was pretty awesome.

Our apartment is a step up from family housing and it's great to have the extra space.

Here's just a quick overview of the ups and downs of our move and the past few weeks:

PROS:

TWO bedrooms!

TWO bathrooms!

Diswasher

Washer and dryer

Dan never has school again

We've had lots of time to spend together

CONS:

Mouse droppings in the kitchen

A new bug bite every day

Having our credit card number stolen and someone trying to buy things on match.com and other random sites

Someone scratching up our back bumper and not leaving a note

Everyone telling us we're in a drought but it's rained at least once a day

Oh, well. What are you gonna do? I think we'll like it here. Especially during the winter when it's cooler out. And it's been really great to have Dan around to do things with - otherwise I'd get lost.

In other news, Dan took Sam swimming for the first time. You can tell Sam really loved it!

Family Pictures

A few days before we left Charlottesville, we went and took family pictures at UVA using a tripod. Most of them had some serious issues - bad angles, bad lighting, sad baby. But we got some gems.

FREE!!!

No, not free slurpees or DQ coupons, unfortunately. I'm free. From studying.

Kristen tells me I need to write a post about finishing the bar exam. I haven't really wanted to because I don't have any pictures to post that would relate the misery of studying for and taking the bar exam. So here's an unrelated picture instead.

So I took the exam last week in Austin, Texas. I got to stay with my brother and his family while I was there, so that was really nice. I don't know what to say really, other than that I think, and really hope, that I probably passed. It was 2 and 1/2 days of handwriting in a freezing convention center (there's a Gun Show! this Saturday and Sunday, according to the banner outside), with my insides doing loopty-loos pretty much the whole week (and a couple weeks leading up to it also). Since I don't have any real pictures, I'll improvise. During the exam, it felt something like this:

So, I was really happy to get to come home and see Kristen and Sam, and to get a month off before work starts.

When I got home, Kristen had made me this:

And Sam this:

GOOD LUCK, DAN!!!

Tomorrow Dan begins the Texas Bar. He has been studying so hard all summer for this and we both can't wait for it to be over! Good luck, honey! I love you. In honor of this special event, here's one of my all-time favorite pictures of Dan. It's from when we were dating. I don't know why it's so small... He's a hunk!

Probably the worst thing about being pregnant, other than the occasional vomiting, was the fact that I was no longer allowed to ride rollercoasters. Growing up, my family always did fun things like amusement parks and waterparks during the summer. When we went to waterparks, my older brothers would harass my little sister and me to ride the insane plummet-straight-down-to-your-death rides like DerStuka and The Bomb Bay (http://www.wetnwildorlando.com/attr_01.html). Fear would get the best of me and I'd try to find some excuse not to go down. My little sister, wanting to out-cool me, would do whatever my brothers told her to which would inevitably leave me looking like a wuss. So then I'd do it too and get the biggest wedgies of my life.

When it comes to rollercoasters, I love them and they are wedgie-free! I'm so happy to no longer be pregnant so that I can go to Busch Gardens this week and ride everything! They've got a new ride, too, which looks pretty fun. While I'm there, I also plan on taking lots of funny pictures on the rides like this:

And here's a new picture of Sam for those who check our blog really only wanting to see him.

Today is 7-11. Go get yourself a free slurpee!

All I want is my buy-one-get-one-free coupon!

Last year, I signed up for Dairy Queen's fan club. Hey, it was free. So once a month I would get an email like "Hey! This month's blizzard is Strawberry Cheesequake. Come buy a blizzard and you'll get one free!" For the past few months, I've just been getting emails that tell me what the blizzard of the month is. No coupon, no discount, nothing.

Yesterday I got their new email featuring the Thin Mint Girl Scout Cookie blizzard. Was there a coupon? No. But off to the side of the email there was a link that said $1 a blizzard. So I clicked on it. What did I see?



What the heck! So now I have to play a stupid game and "Unite the Deeqs" in order to get a coupon? Fine. So I played the game for like 5 minutes and kept dying. So I gave up. Then I told Dan about it and being the kind husband he is (he really just wanted to play the game), he tried to get the coupon, too. He played for like 15 minutes. He got super far. Finally he couldn't figure out what to do next so he gave up. No coupon. LOUSY GAME! What a waste of time.

So, if any of you are up for uniting the Deeqs, or just winning me a $1 coupon at Dairy Queen. Feel free to give it a try: http://www.deeqs.com/?utm_source=BFCblastA&utm_medium=email&utm_content=deeqtile&utm_campaign=0708thinmint but be careful. It can be addicting.

SMILES!

We finally caught some of Samuel's smiles on camera! He slept last night for 7.5 hours without waking up. Then he got up for an hour and is now sleeping peacefully again. (It's been another 2.5 hours so far.) I'm lovin' it.

4 years and a blessing

Thursday Dan and I celebrated our four-year anniversary. He studied all day but when he got home, we wanted to take a picnic up the Blue Ridge. We packed up Sam and away we went. First, we had to stop at the gas station. No problem, right? Well, Sam was SCREAMING in the backseat the entire time, the pumps were WAY backed up due to rush hour and low pump pressure, not to mention only 1/2 the pumps were open.

So after a 30 minute delay there, we went to get food through the drive-thru. That took 10 minutes. Sam was still screaming. We wanted to take 64 up to the BR Parkway but thanks to one lane being closed due to construction, we decided to just have a picnic on the Monticello Trail. Sam screamed the entire drive, but finally fell asleep while we ate dinner and Dan got attacked by bugs. Happy 4 years!!

Saturday we went to the temple. A big thanks to my parents for switching with us so that we could go while they watched Samuel.


Today Dan blessed Sam in church. Sam wore the same blessing outfit that my brother Ryan wore 28 years ago. He looked quite dapper. The blessing was beautiful and we're grateful for such a sweet little boy!

For some reason, unapparent to the rest of us, for the last year or so, Dan has been on the hunt for a shirt. Not just any shirt, the ultimate wolf shirt. He was very particular in his quest. It had to be a wolf shirt with one wolf standing on a ledge howling at a larger-than-life full moon with an image of a wolf's face on the other side of the shirt.



Since Dan had begun his quest, I also began the quest hoping that I could find one to give to him for his birthday this past December or for Christmas. Or really, if I ever came across one, I decided I was going to buy it simply because I was having such a hard time finding one anyway. Around his birthday, I scoured our local thrift stores hoping for something remotely close to his ideal. No luck.



A few weeks ago, we got a package from my brother who had recently driven from Connecticut down through Texas and had stopped in his old mission areas of Tennessee. Dan opened the package to find it. His dream shirt. I present to you THE WOLF SHIRT.



Dan loves it. And I'm sure Candice hates it. Thanks, Kirk and Gretchen! I think it's hilarious.

My New Favorite Picture of Sam

The Many Faces of Samuel Durst